Forgotten Felonies
Forgotten Felonies revisits historical crimes that were forgotten—or remembered incorrectly. It’s tempting, looking backward, to fill in the gaps with conclusions that feel obvious now. But that isn’t how history works. Through original newspaper reporting, period advertisements from the years the crimes occurred, and a blend of forensic psychology and genealogical research, each episode restores context to cases history left behind—asking not only what happened, but why.
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Forgotten Felonies
William Hooper Young: Murder, Madness, and the Morris Canal
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In September 1902, the body of Annie Pulitzer was discovered in New Jersey's Morris Canal, weighted down and hidden from view. The investigation quickly led police to William Hooper Young, grandson of famed Mormon leader Brigham Young and a man whose increasingly erratic behavior had alarmed those around him.
In this episode, Monica and Olivia follow the case from the streets of New York's Tenderloin district to a lavish rented apartment New York City, where investigators uncovered a trail of bloody evidence and a trunk that became one of the most memorable pieces of the case. Along the way, they explore Annie's life, the sensational newspaper coverage that gripped the nation, and the fierce battle over whether Hooper Young was a calculating murderer or a man descending into madness.
More than a century later, it remains one of the most fascinating and forgotten criminal cases of the early twentieth century.
